Transcript
A village leader in Gulf Province says local people have not been briefed yet on what the new gas project on their land means for them.
For Solomon Lae, a chief in Kapai Aikavalavi village, the lack of consultation reflects how the nation's political leaders have long milked the benefits of the country's resources.
"We have never had the opportunity to be clear on exactly what is going to happen in the province. There are no public servants who can be able to tell the people, the illiterate, the silent majority, what's going to happen in the gas and oil industry. It's a new elephant for us."
The signing of the agreement preceded the resignation of Finance Minister James Marape, the MP for Tari in Hela province, the hub of the country's first LNG project.
Ten years after the project agreement, many of Mr Marape's constituents are frustrated with the government because they are yet to see promised benefits from the venture.
Meanwhile, the clan vetting process to establish the rightful landowners receive benefits and royalties is still not complete.
According to opposition MP and the member for Gulf Province's Kerema MP, Richard Mendani, instability in the government's ranks is linked to the way it is rushing through a new gas project without properly consulting all stakeholders
"The current government is under pressure to improve on this performance. There's a lot of talk and a lot of political movements within Waigani. I'm so surprised that the current government, the PM and Total have without any proper consultation gone in and signed off the project agreement."
But PNG's Treasurer Charles Abel says the gas agreement is only one part of the process, and that landowners will be part of discussions for the Benefit Sharing Agreement.
"The signing of the gas agreement, it just establishes the broad fiscal terms, to enable the developer to obtain financing and give them comfort to spend a bit more money into the feed process, the Front End Engineering Design process. In the intervening period, they've got to complete all the landowner registration, and more of that work has been done."
The state has a 22.5 percent interest in the project, of which two percent is on behalf of landowners.
Mr Abel says that compared to the PNG LNG Project, which began exports five years ago, there are significant improvements in the new project from a landowners' perspective
He says this time the benefits are carefully structured, ensuring revenues even when commodity prices are low
"The landowners are getting a better benefit, but the state is not unduly putting itself into a difficult financial situation. when the oil price collapsed, there was very little benefit from the PNG LNG Project, and yet we were lumped with all the obligations to meet all the obligations we made to the landowners and then we hadn't even done the (clan) vetting exercise properly. So, we've learnt from this process."
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says the project's expected investment of nearly US$13 billion will benefit local communities and create jobs.
However, claims have surfaced from a former senior technical officer at the Department of Petroleum that the Elk/Antelope is a very marginal resource lacking gas volumes to sustain a major project.
This was related in a review by a team of geoscientists and engineers, presented to the O'Neill government and the major partners in the project in 2017.
Despite this, the government is proceeding with the project, in which it has a significant financial stake.
